


Alone Wolf

by DireDireThreats (PennsylvaniaKiteWeather)



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Gen, Keaton is still terrible at navigating, oh and Arthur is a mall cop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 05:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19457587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PennsylvaniaKiteWeather/pseuds/DireDireThreats
Summary: A young Velouria gets separated from her father in a public place. With some help from a few strangers, she’s reunited.





	Alone Wolf

Velouria waited for the van door to open before she unbuckled herself from her seat. “Thank you, Daddy,” she said as leaned out into a pair of waiting arms.

Keaton set the kindergartener down on the asphalt. He zipped up his daughter’s puffy red coat a little higher and fixed her bangs with a grin. “Ready to go shopping?”

“I want us to get Mommy a big gift!” Velouria blurted out, and immediately began skipping away. Keaton reached and got her hand before she ran off through the parking lot. The local mall was their destination, and one of its several entrances waited across the curb. They were both dressed warm for the early springtime, some melting snow patches prompting long, dark pants for each of them. Keaton’s jacket was of fine, black leather; Velouria’s boots were covered in red, shimmering sequins.

It was when Keaton opened the first set of doors and they were hit by a tantalizing mix of smells that something was a bit off.

“Wait, this is the food court,” Keaton said. “Not the department store. Whoops...” He scratched his head at a nearby map for a short time before pressing on, and Velouria opted to let go of his hand when she saw the two lanes of people within the avenue of shops ahead. She wanted to look adultish.

Amongst the few young couples and the larger families milling about, she stared the longest at an elderly man and woman they went past. Aside from the hunch of their bodies and the cane and walker’s stump and clack, Velouria’s attention was drawn to something else about them.

“Daddy,” Velouria glanced up. “Is it weird that my hair’s grey?”

“Huh?” he looked bewildered, but laughed as soon as he saw it was more like curiosity than concern on her face. “No, no, not at all...! It’s like me and having black-and-white.” He hastily finger-combed the tallest snow-white tufts of his tousled mane. “You’re unique!”

“Oh, okay.”

They had been walking for a long time now, it seemed. Velouria’s arms swung in restless circles, her sleeves whooshing like windsocks. She drifted a few steps behind her father as she watched the feet of the people coming and going by.

All of a sudden her ears heard a sharp ding. It was a coin, she realized right away, looking back at the source.

“Ooh!”

As naturally as a dog fetches, Velouria scampered after it. The coin had rolled a good distance by the time she caught up and scooped it from the floor. No point in giving it back to somebody; it was hers now. Maybe she could buy a gumball with this shiny quarter she got. Or it could go towards her mommy’s gift. She’d buy her mom a gumball.

It was when she turned to fall back in-step with her dad that her feet soon slowed. ...Which way did he go? The throng of people seemed denser than ever. She scanned the few dozen adults in view, their haircuts, their clothes. Velouria stood in the midst of all the activity and tried to be patient, hoping she’d catch her father walking back towards her, and in the meantime her heart began pounding.

“D-Daddy?” she called weakly, and not a soul seemed to acknowledge her.

Panic seeped into her, spurring her boots into motion.

“Daddy?!”

She _wasn’t_ going to cry. There was only the day when she was dropped off at a daycare for the first time in preschool—pasted to the window, sobbing as she watched her parents’ van drive away. The other kids made fun of her or stayed away the whole time as the guardians tried everything to console her. It was solitary confinement for a girl, one who believed that it was her mother and father’s punishment of some kind to just leave her there.

And while she might have moved past that feeling, it suddenly manifested in a wail that turned a few heads in the mall.

_“Daddyyyy...!”_

There were too many people, too many places to look. Velouria tripped, with her eyes a foggy mist of tears, and bawled lying on the floor, palms keeping her up.

“Heeey there...” a male was gently speaking to her. “Are you alright? Where’re your parents?”

Velouria popped up to her feet to see another father-daughter pair staring at her. The other girl looked about her age and had a bright blonde bob of hair and an expensive-looking red jacket with a furred collar. She held tightly to her dad’s hand and another clutched a pink plastic shopping bag that nearly touched the floor. The adult, equally as fashionable in a navy blue coat and zebra-patterned scarf, brushed aside some copper-colored hair and bent to hear Velouria better.

“I lost my daddy...!” she blubbered, unable to look at either of them. She could feel warm tears spilling now that she had said it aloud— lost, separated from her one and only father.

“Aww, you’ll be alright!” he flashed a reassuring smile. “What’s he look like?”

She forced her eyes open trying to remember. All the minute details were never as important as they were now. “He has...” A sniffle, gesturing to her shoulders. “Black and white hair...? It’s long...”

“Hmm, that should be easy to find...” he continued glancing about. “I wonder if there’s security around that we can tell this to...”

Velouria wasn’t listening as she dried her eyes on her sleeves. When she reopened them the other girl was still looking wide-eyed at her—but even closer than before.

“What?” Velouria piped up.

“Uh, nothing!” came the reply, high-pitched and squeaky. “My name’s Selkie!”

“Ok?” Now was not the time to make a new friend. There was a crisis going on.

“Wanna see what I got in here?” It was an endearing grin she had on as she set down the bulky bag and tugged at the edges. Selkie exposed a gigantic castle playset with a posse of dolls peeking out from the plastic. “My daddy got me this! Cool, huh?” The girl couldn’t be more proud as she rotated the box.

“I-I don’t care...” Velouria muttered, nearly beginning to cry again. She just wanted to be away from these strangers, in the safety of her daddy’s arms, but yet...

“There’s somebody!” Selkie’s father straightened up and began to beckon to somebody in white. “Excuse me, sir, this girl’s lost.” Velouria was gently steered forward by the back. “Go on, tell the nice officer everything you told me. He’ll help you.”

She meekly approached the third individual, immediately a little more trusting having been taught this was how to handle emergencies.

He was a big man, probably more muscular than her dad, in fact, standing with arms akimbo. Looking up, one thing was certain: she had never seen somebody with such a sculpted chin, and his hair was gelled into a wave of gold, from what it looked like.

“Um, I can’t find my dad...” she explained. And a little calmer now, she was able to offer up a few more details, the color of all his clothes.

“Fear not!” He patted her shoulder. “That’s a good start. And you know his name?”

“Keaton...”

He was making mental notes with each nod. “What about a cellphone number?”

“Five... five...” Velouria let out a shrill whimper. “I forget...!” She was on the verge of tears again.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry!” The man leaned a little closer and lowered his voice. “I don’t tell a lot of people this, but...” The blue irises of his had hardened like crystal. “I’m actually—a superhero...!”

Velouria stared at him for a moment and then wiped her aching eyes. “No you’re not...”

“Oh, but I am! You know, I’ve saved dozens of kids like you before. I’ll even call my team of superhero friends right now...!”

Velouria glowered at the mall cop and waited for this all to be a joke, but then he took something small off his chest and talked into it like a phone. “Arthur to all personnel. Be on the lookout for a dad searching for his daughter, should be wearing dark clothes. I have a lost girl around six or seven with me.”

He nodded once as the radio clipped back into place. “You’re being very brave, you know. Do you want to go see the fountain here while you wait for your father?”

“Okay...”

The most gallant of grins adorned his face as he straightened up and pointed. “Follow me!”

Velouria was soon kneeling on a bench, leaning over the back of it to stare into the rippling water of the mall’s centerpiece. The officer continued his surveying a short distance away. It was soothing somewhat, trying to count all the glints of the coins in the pool that people had tossed in to make wishes. She only got up to ten before she settled her chin down on the backrest, impatient. Just when the idea got in her head to make her own wish with her quarter, the man’s distinct voice called to her.

“Oh! Is that your dad over there?”

Velouria spotted him walking briskly through the traffic of people; she instantly jumped off and sprinted.

“Daddy!”

“Velouria, I’m so sorry!” Keaton exclaimed, whisking his weeping daughter up. “As soon as I realized you weren’t behind me, _I_ got lost too...!”

All that came out of Velouria were more sobs, hugging him tightly around the back of the neck, tears drying against his shoulder. Keaton turned to both the officer that had guided him and the blonde one by the bench and mouthed a _thank you so much_ to them. He patted her back reassuringly as they went away, glancing about at all the stares—and the smiles—of the onlookers witnessing the reunion.

“Let’s promise to always keep track of each other, okay?” Keaton told her gently and kissed her scalp.

Velouria lifted her head and hiccuped. “Okay.”

“And how about some ice cream?” he offered next, with a big, knowing smile.

She dug through her coat pocket and held up the item that had caused so much trouble for her in the first place. “Can we buy it with this quarter I found?”

Keaton had to laugh. “Oops, that’s a nickel, Vel. Heh, but I’m sure that’ll help.”

**Author's Note:**

> Just my first stab at a modern AU before the fandom shifts focus completely to Three Houses, I suppose. The result is nauseatingly sweet, cotton candy fluff. I hope I handled the translation of the characters well from one world to the next.
> 
> [Project: y’all’ve lost / I love is free world]


End file.
